The Sugar Bowl Committee has announced that the Al Briede Gold Cup race on Saturday, March 25 will be an official qualifying event for the annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Crescent City Classic. The 39th Crescent City Classic, recognized as one of the top 10-kilometer road races in the country, will be run on Saturday, April 15 beginning at 8 a.m.

Any runners who complete the five-kilometer Al Briede Gold Cup in under 22 minutes will automatically qualify for a seeded bib number in order to run the Crescent City Classic in a faster starting group.

This year's Al Briede Gold Cup, the 50th edition of the event, will be hosted by the New Orleans Track Club in Audubon Park. All proceeds from the race benefit the LA-SPCA and the Christopher Briede Memorial Scholarship honored at St. Stanislaus College Prep in Bay St. Louis, Miss.

The Al Briede Gold Cup Race is the third-oldest race in New Orleans and is a long-standing tradition for many area runners and walkers. Recently, the Gold Cup's namesake, Al Briede, passed away at the age of 94. He was instrumental in the running community as one of the founders of the New Orleans Track Club and is well known for his dedication to the sport.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 27 national champions, 88 Hall of Fame players, 47 Hall of Fame coaches and 17 Heisman Trophy winners in its 83-year history. The 84th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, will be played on January 1, 2018. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1.6 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors over 25,000 student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade.